Iron ore
Iron ore mining in the UK has almost stopped. The
country's iron ore reserves are estimated at 4.6 billion tons, but
their quality is relatively low, with an iron content of 22-33%.Most
reserves of iron ore are concentrated in Cumbria, Staffordshire,
Lancashire. Iron ore deposits have been developed in the UK in the
past, but mining low-quality ore has proved unprofitable. For
example, in the 18th century, Great Britain imported (mainly from
Sweden and Russia) twice as much iron as it produced. In the 20th
century, the mining industry reduced iron ore production due to
foreign competition.
Deposits: the East Midlands field is the largest.
The Scunthorpe area contains sedimentary deposits associated with the
Jurassic sediments of the Caledonian cover. Cumberland and
Northamptonshire — the Millo, Egremont, Beckermet, Corby, and
Northampton deposits are located here.
Important: Cumberland's
rich ores have been mined, while the rest of the deposits have low
iron content.
The UK imports
most of the necessary iron ore.
The main suppliers are Canada, Mauritania and Liberia. The
reason: the extraction of low-quality
ore turned out to be unprofitable, and the industry uses rich
imported ore.
